Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham (left) speaks with Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on April 30, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
A House committee Wednesday approved a bill making Juneteenth an Alabama state holiday after the sponsor removed a provision that would have required state employees to choose between that holiday or a Confederate one.
HB 165, sponsored by Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, originally put Juneteenth on the state holiday list but did not require offices to shut down. Instead, state employees would choose to take the holiday celebrating the end of slavery or Jefferson Davis’ Birthday, a state holiday marked on the first Monday in June to honor the president of the Confederacy, a white supremacist government.
Rehm revised the bill to make Juneteenth a state holiday for all employees, like Jefferson Davis’ birthday.
“Last year we failed, and I didn’t want to fail again, and I’m able to communicate to the Republican caucus why this is important,” said Rehm, who is white and is the only Republican in the Alabama House who represents a district that is more than 40% Black.
Juneteenth has been a federal holiday since 2021.
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Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, a member of the House Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development committee, was visibly upset and gave a tense speech before walking out of the room.
Givan said that for as long as a bill making Juneteenth a holiday, it’s never been carried and passed by a white man, and added, “I got a problem with that.”
“I’ve been in this House 15 years. I don’t think there has ever been a piece of legislation that has come before this committee that I have to wrestle with,” Givan said, adding that she wants to vote against the bill even if she supports it.
Alabama Democrats have pushed over the years to make Juneteenth a state holiday. Givan has introduced a bill each year since 2023 and passed it out of the house in 2024, with the compromise that employees would have to pick between Davis’s birthday or Juneteenth.
During the 2023 session, Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, proposed a measure that added Juneteenth without affecting the other official holidays. Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, introduced a bill to replace Davis’ birthday with Juneteenth as an official holiday.
“My ancestors are crying,” Givan said as she walked out.
Evangeline Reynolds-Gunn, a Black constituent in Rehm’s district present at the committee meeting, said to Givan before she walked out that her words were “bone-chilling,” and asked the committee to “please find a place in your heart to pardon Rep. Givan.”
“It’s just different emotions for different people. Please do not hold her actions against her or this bill. It’s just a passionate subject, but I believe Alabama is strong enough and courageous enough to handle an individual speaking so passionately as Rep. Givan,” she said.
Reynolds-Gunn added that she also holds that Alabamians are “courageous enough to look at little referee from down south Rick Rehm take this by the helm and say, ‘I’ll be the guy that can reach both sides.’”
Rehm said after the meeting that he was “sympathetic to her,” but he is carrying the bill because he believes he can better articulate the bill to those in the Republican caucus worried about the expense.
According to the fiscal note, adding Juneteenth would increase the state’s obligations “by a minimal, undetermined amount.” Rehm also said that state employees have had the holiday off for the past few years, showing that the state can afford it.
“We’re paying for it anyway. The governor declares it a holiday, as she should,” he said.
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